Enrichment Activities for Your Dog

What does your dog do all day?  For many people that answer is something along the lines of "I don't know, I'm not home all day," or "Sleep," or "Wait for me to come home," but is that how it should be?  Most of us people have something to keep us occupied during the day, working, taking care of our homes and families, etc.  Most wild animals have things they need to do as well, in order to survive, and historically most of our dogs have been bred for some kind of purpose.  Now, however, many of our dogs spend much of their days hanging around nice homes and yards where there really isn't too much to worry about.

We often fail to consider that most of us would go crazy without anything to do for extended periods of time, and that the same is often true for our dogs.  Boredom and frustration often lead to more serious behavior problems that can be dangerous to your dog, your home or yard, and even other people and dogs, so it is important to make sure that your dog's needs for mental and physical stimulation are being met whether your spending most of your day with him, or he's spending 8-12 hours a day alone.

You may be worried that this will be too difficult to achieve, given that most of us are rather short on time, but with a little planning and a few minutes each day there is a lot you can do to help your dog.

Physical Exercise
Just as it is important for us to engage in a little physical activity every day it is important for our dogs.  You should speak with your veterinarian to determine what types and how much is appropriate for your dog's age, physical condition, and energy level, but here are a few ideas.

On leash walks
On or off leash hiking
Jogging together
Swimming
A game of fetch
Dog Parks
Agility
Fly Ball
Tracking

Mental Stimulation
While many people due a great job of getting their dogs physical exercise they can sometimes forget that dogs need to use their brains as well as their bodies.  So what can you do to give your dog's brain a much needed work out?  You might be surprised but my first recommendation is to stop feeding him out of a bowl.  Think about it, wild animals spend A LOT of their time finding, catching, and consuming their food, but for most of our dogs food just appears in the bowl once or twice a day, they have no control over it, it just happens, or worse yet...their bowl is ALWAYS full*.  You'll do your dog a lot more good by hand feeding him his meals during training, or giving him a puzzle to earn the food himself, basically just GIVE HIM A JOB.

If you give your dog a job he's a lot less likely to invent one on his own, so it's a lot less likely that he'll end up with a job that you'd rather he didn't have.  

There are some pretty awesome toys out there now designed for the very purpose of providing your dog with some mental stimulation while he eats.  Look for things that are designed to stand up to dog's chewing and will hold an appropriate amount of food for your dog's size, we have a selection of such toys at our Providence hospital, stop by any time to check them out or talk to us about which one might be appropriate for your dog.

*Some dog's may need to have constant access of food for health reasons, please follow the advice of your veterinarian in these matters.